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Twister (UK)
Twister was Team Berserk's final entry for Robot Wars, competing exclusively in Series 5. In its only televised appearance, it lost in the first round of its heat to Clawed Hopper, making it the first competitor to be defeated by a walkerbot in the main UK Championship. Design Twister was an invertible robot with a narrow chassis, four wheels - two on top, two at the bottom - and an array of four weapons. These weapons consisted of a front flipper, a rear bludgeoner - which could spin up to 55mph and inspired the robot's name - a three-bladed drill cutter mounted in front of the bludgeoner, and large spikes on the sides and end of the flipper. Curiously, the drill weapon was referred to as another set of spikes by Jonathan Pearce, and was quoted as being intended for ramming and spinning. Twister's top wheels were set slightly closer to the bludgeoner than the bottom ones, although the reasoning behind this design feature is currently unknown. The robot itself benefited in having multiple attack strategies as a result of its weapons arsenal, and proved quick and agile in its only battle. However, the weapons themselves did not prove powerful, and a lack of testing resulted in poor reliability. Qualification Following its appearance in Series 5 - in which it successfully qualified for - Twister was completely redesigned and rebuilt for an attempted entry into Series 6, retaining only the bludgeoner. The new version was a four-wheeled, pyramid-shaped robot fitted with two front cutting discs, its appearance and armament gave it a striking resemblance to former UK Series runner-up Pussycat. Twister's bludgeoner in this incarnation was set at the base of the robot and lacked the drill extension it had in Series 5. Twister fought Barbaric Response and Lightning in its qualifier, but became immobilised during the battle after getting flipped onto its bludgeoner by the latter. As a result, Twister failed to qualify for the Sixth Wars. Robot History Series 5 Twister competed in Heat L of Series 5, facing walkerbot and fellow Series 4 returnee Clawed Hopper in the first round. With its flipper already open, it started the battle quickly by driving around the side of Clawed Hopper, but stopped short of hitting it with its drill cutter. It retreated towards the wall before ramming into the side of Clawed Hopper, and attempted to reverse before suddenly losing mobility after fifteen seconds had elapsed. As a result, Twister was repeatedly bumped and pushed aside by Clawed Hopper, until it was left close to the Flame Pit. Refbot proceeded to count Twister out as Clawed Hopper slowly pushed it across the arena again, before Dead Metal grabbed and sliced into Twister's flipper and chassis with his saw. Twister was pushed over the Flame Pit and into Matilda's flywheel by Dead Metal, before both House Robots left it in the middle of the arena and Matilda helped Clawed Hopper position it close to the pit. Eventually, Clawed Hopper pushed Twister towards and into the pit, eliminating it from the Fifth Wars. This battle marked Team Berserk's final televised appearance in any version of Robot Wars. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 0 *Losses: 1 Series Record Trivia *As in their previous series appearances, Team Berserk were notable in that most of their team members were deaf, communicating in sign language. This allowed them to have one extra team member to act as a translator. *Twister was the only robot in Heat L of the Fifth Wars that never appeared in any other series. However, its team did appear in Series 2-4 with the Berserk series of robots. References Category:UK Series competitors Category:Robots from West Yorkshire Category:Robots with Drills Category:Robots with Bludgeoners Category:Invertible Robots Category:Robots with Rear-hinged Flippers Category:Robots which debuted in Series 5 Category:Robots which lost their only battle Category:Robots which only fought in Series 5